Gary S. Sastow, partner at Brown, Gruttadaro, Gaujean & Prato LLC (BGGP) in White Plains, was named Westchester County’s Leading Health Care Attorney at the ninth annual Above the Bar Awards on June 4. The awards ceremony, which took place at Pace Law School, was attended by over a hundred members of the Westchester legal and business communities.

The Leading Health Care Attorney award honors an individual who has concentrated his/her legal expertise within the area of health care and distinguished themselves as a leading health care attorney among his/her peers. Mr. Sastow has over 20 years of experience in health care, general business and real estate law and a proven track record of representing physicians, and other health care providers, in all matters of business.

Mr. Sastow, who comes from a family of physicians, spoke about how he strives to provide the same dedication to clients that his father had to his own medical patients.

“We live in a very challenging time when it comes to health care,” Mr. Sastow said during his speech. “My goal is to deliver the absolute best legal services to my clients, with the same passion and commitment exemplified by my father. If I can make a positive difference in someone’s life then I’ve achieved that goal.”

Prior to joining BGGP earlier this year, Mr. Sastow ran a private practice where he represented health care providers, businesses and individual clients in all aspects of their lives. He previously has practiced health care law at other prominent law firms across New York State.

“We are thrilled that esteemed judges for the Above the Bar Awards have recognized what we see in Gary – a superb lawyer who is a trusted confidant and true asset to his clients and our firm,” said Max G. Gaujean, founding member of BGGP. “We are proud to have him as part of our team and congratulate him on this well-deserved honor.”

BGGP is a full-service law firm with offices in White Plains, New York City and Rochester, New York. It was founded in 2013 as the successor law firm to Brown & Tarantino LLC, which had been in existence since 1993.

About Brown, Gruttadaro, Gaujean & Prato, LLC

Brown, Gruttadaro, Gaujean & Prato, LLC (BGGP) was founded in June 2013 as the successor law firm to Brown & Tarantino, LLC, which was established in 1993. BGGP is a legal professional limited liability corporation serving clients throughout New York State, with offices in White Plains, New York City and Rochester. BGGP represents individuals, corporations and municipalities in all New York State courts in matters involving litigation, administrative proceedings and business transactions. A firm with a proven track record of success, BGGP attorneys are consistently top-rated by Martindale-Hubbell and the firm was honored as a 2014 U.S. World Report Best Law Firm.

This month, the 2nd Annual Scholarships for College-Bound Chicagoland Powered by the Law Office of Nicholas W. Richardson, P.C., were awarded to four area high school students. Thank to you everyone who submitted an essay for this year’s scholarships. Congrats to the winners:

Matthew Houck, Grand Prize, Maine South High School

Megan Aquadro, First Runner-Up, Libertyville High School

Christopher Annis, Honorable Mention, Wheaton North High School

Jake Ritthamel, Honorable Mention, Maine South High School

Totaling $ 2,500, the scholarships aim to help families in Chicago’s Northwest Suburbs with expenses for advanced education, including college, nursing, business, trade, technical training and other similar programs.

This year, students rewrote the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution and then explain their rationale with examples from their own lives or from U.S. history in 500 words.

“For the last two years, I’ve been beyond impressed with the overall quality of the essay submissions, and the time the soon-to-be graduates put into their essays,” says Attorney Nicholas W. Richardson, who launched this program in 2014 as a means to give back to the community. “This year’s submissions were so strong that I decided to change the scholarships to the same amount next year.”

Matthew Houck, this year’s Grand Prize winner, noted the challenge of writing such an essay hinges on the fact that the Constitution “remains relevant in a world that is nearly unrecognizable from the time it was written. Through over two centuries since our nation’s founding, the Constitution has endured. It has stood the test of time.”

Attorney Richardson is happy to give back to the communities that have helped grow his law practice that he opened in 2009, and given skyrocketing college expenses, he’s happy to help today’s families throughout Cook, DuPage, Lake and McHenry chip away at the cost of further education.

“Thank you to all the students who submitted essays this year. Almost every submission was worthy of winning, and I think, this fact speaks volumes to the caliber of students graduating from our area high schools,” added Attorney Richardson.

Based in Palatine, Ill., at his namesake law office, Attorney Richardson helps families throughout Chicago’s Northwest Suburbs navigate numerous family law-related matters every day. His direct, straightforward approach has resonated with his clients since his admission to the Bar of Illinois in 2004. This year, Attorney Richardson was named to Rising Stars, an honor given to only 2.5 percent of Illinois lawyers. For more information, visit http://www.nickrichardsonlaw.com/.

Clutch Group, an organization dedicated to helping companies in the financial services, energy, and life sciences industries tackle complex legal, risk and compliance issues, is pleased to announce that it has been chosen as a highly commended finalist in the Supplier Innovation category of the 2015 Legal Week Legal Innovation Awards.

The Legal Innovation Awards, held by Legal Week, recognize and reward the people who are driving the legal profession forward by applying imagination and ingenuity to take good ideas off the drawing board and turn them into products that improve the delivery of legal services. This year, there were over 70 finalists across its 16 categories. The awards ceremony was held on May 22, 2015 at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower in London. Clutch Group supported the event as a Category Sponsor and presented the award for Next Generation Innovation.

Unlike other audio analytics solutions that are typically offered as static software, Audio.IQ is both a fully-managed service and product. Existing market tools have serious volume limitations and are often too tethered to strict phonetic-based text rendering capabilities, making it difficult for customers to efficiently isolate and analyze audio and to accommodate different dialects, languages, and accents. With its dual text and audio data rendering functionality, as well as its ability to be customized through proprietary language models, Audio.IQ is a comprehensive and nuanced audio analytics solution.

Key highlights and differentiators of Audio.IQ include:

Dual Rendering: Audio.IQ captures a concurrent data stream of both audio and text, overlaid with rich metadata. This added flexibility allows for more complex searches and predictive analytics across enormous amounts of data.
Customized Language Modelling: Through proprietary algorithms and language models, Audio.IQ can be customized for individual organizations. Rather than relying on inflexible phonetic rendering, Audio.IQ can be programmed to find meaning in seemingly unintelligible industry vocabulary, regional dialects, and more.
Fully Managed Service: Audio.IQ is supported by a dedicated team that builds bespoke search and predictive models, analyzes results, and fine-tunes the system. From data collection to factual analysis, Clutch’s dedicated teams can support the entire audio analytics spectrum.

“We are delighted to have been chosen as a leader in the Supplier Innovation category of the 2015 Legal Innovation Awards,” said Varun Mehta, VP of Legal & Compliance Solutions at Clutch Group. “This recognition solidifies our belief that Audio.IQ has the potential to disrupt the market and transform audio analytics from a regulatory challenge for our customers, to a tool that can drive positive impact in any aspect of an organization’s business, from compliance to marketing.”

Clutch Group was recently recognized as one of the Top 25 Most Promising Global Outsourcing Companies by SiliconIndia and was chosen as a top legal services provider in IAOP’s 2015 Global Outsourcing 100 List. Clutch was also recognized as an Outstanding Service Provider in the 2014 International Association for Contract & Commercial Management (IACCM) Innovation Awards and named in the Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America. In addition, Clutch was voted as a Top Legal Outsourcing Provider and a Top Corporate Investigations Provider by the 2014 New York Law Journal Reader Rankings and was named a Leader in the LPO industry by NelsonHall.

About Clutch Group

Founded in 2005 by top attorneys from leading firms and business process pioneers, Clutch Group has grown to a team of legal, technology and process experts in six offices across three continents. Clutch was built from the ground up to help General Counsels more effectively manage problems within Fortune 500 companies. Clutch combines its expertise in harnessing technology, implementing process and focusing on fact development to deliver risk-measured, cost-optimized solutions for clients. Clutch Group has been consistently ranked as a top provider by industry research as well as client satisfaction since its inception and has been recognized by industry authorities including Nelson Hall, the New York Law Journal, the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP), Chambers Global, Frost & Sullivan, the Black Book of Outsourcing, and Dun & Bradstreet. For more information, visit http://www.clutchgroup.com.

Retired Justice David A. Erickson will receive Stetson University’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching Advocacy during the Educating Advocates: Teaching Advocacy Skills Conference on May 19 on the Gulfport campus. The Edward D. Ohlbaum Professionalism Award will be presented to professor Adam Shlahet.

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes those who have fundamentally changed the way in which the world approaches the teaching of advocacy. Justice Erickson’s distinguished career as a lawyer, jurist and law professor began in 1976. Erickson served as an assistant state attorney, was appointed to the bench where he served between 1988-1996, and became the first assistant state’s attorney in Cook County. In 2001, Erickson was recalled to the bench by the Illinois Supreme Court and presided for three years in the Juvenile Court, serving as trial judge and as acting supervisory judge until his appointment to the Appellate Court. In 2006, Erickson retired as justice of the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, and became senior lecturer in law at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he has directed the school’s nationally ranked trial advocacy program, Criminal Law Certificate Program, and “Rule of Law” initiative in Mexico.

The Edward D. Ohlbaum Award honors an individual whose life and practice display sterling character and unquestioned integrity, coupled with ongoing dedication to the highest standards of the legal profession and the rule of law. The award is designed to recognize a trial team coach and program director who exemplifies the late Professor Ohlbaum’s commitment to doing things with a high degree of professionalism, integrity and competency. In choosing this year’s recipient, the selection committee was charged with finding a rising star in the advocacy coaching world. The committee selected Shlahet, a special assistant attorney general with the New York State Attorney General Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and adjunct professor at Fordham Law School. Shlalet received the Travis H.D. Lewin Outstanding Coach Award from the Trial Lawyers Section of the New York State Bar Association. He has coached Fordham law students competing in 23 national trial competitions and was named director of Trial Competitions at Fordham Law School in 2012.

The annual Educating Advocates conference, May 18-21 on Stetson University’s Gulfport campus, draws law professors, lawyers and legal practitioners from across the U.S. to learn the Stetson method of advocacy, developing teaching skills, new techniques and networking with some of the most recognized names in advocacy teaching. To register for the conference, visit http://stetson.edu/eats/.

About Stetson University College of Law

Stetson University College of Law, Florida’s first law school, has prepared lawyers and leaders since 1900. Today, Stetson leads the nation in blending legal doctrine with practical training, evidenced by its top-ranked programs in advocacy and legal writing. Through our academically rigorous curriculum and commitment to social responsibility, Stetson lawyers are ethical advocates ready to succeed in the legal profession.

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